I’ve been thinking about making a dress with lace that I could dress down with Chucks or dress up with heels for a night out or a fancy event. While browsing for some inspiration, I thought this dress I saw on Coast fits my idea of the kind of dress I’d like to make:

I recently bought some new dress patterns from Etsy, specifically McCall’s #4598, Butterick #5582 and Butterick #5731), but my mind still drifts back to the idea of making a high neckline lace dress with lace sleeves, possibly with black lace and a nude coloured lining underneath.

I’ve already got the pattern (New Look #6723), the same one I altered to give my watercolour print tea dress a V-neckline. The pattern also comes with a bodice pattern with a wide boat neck and you can also add sleeves to it which is exactly what I had in mind. While high street stores these days like to sell dresses which end just above the knee, I like the traditional and somewhat modest look of the skirt hem falling just below the knee, which brings some elegance to the look and an idea of demurity.

I’ve had a browse around for inspiration and felt the dresses below were great examples to play around with for my own dress:

2 thoughts on “My next dressmaking project: lace tea dress”

Sounds like a great new project! Let me know how you get on. Know all too well of searching for find motivation to continue a project gone slight off piste. Need to finish my chiffon maxi with thigh slit.